


Archery

by BlueForestFox



Category: World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft (Comics), World of Warcraft - Various Authors
Genre: Archery, Bows & Arrows, Developing Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Marriage, Shenanigans, Training, learning how to be in a relationship, lots of sharing, sylvaina fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:34:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26135068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueForestFox/pseuds/BlueForestFox
Summary: Jaina and Sylvanas working on their marriage, teaching each other different things as a way of sharing, and the Banshee Queen thinks it's high time that Jaina learned to shoot a bow.
Relationships: Jaina Proudmoore/Sylvanas Windrunner
Comments: 4
Kudos: 78





	Archery

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all! So as I have said it, I will say it again: really not a fan of Sylvanas' canon character but the Sylvaina community on AO3 is amazing and I love you all and it makes me want to write ALL KINDS OF RIDICULOUS JAINA/SYLVANAS STUFF. Playing around with ways of turning an arranged marriage into something actually functional as they both realize they have feelings for each other but are still working on the whole 'communication' thing. Also the importance of sharing/teaching skills and interests in a relationship. Also archery is one of my hobbies and I stayed up too late so now:  
> Jaina and Sylvanas working on their marriage, teaching each other different things as a way of sharing, and the Banshee Queen thinks it's high time that Jaina learned to shoot a bow. Here's a bunch of random fluff and unnecessarily detailed archery shenanigans.

It had, at some point, become a mutually agreed on sentiment that Jaina ought to learn to use a bow.  
Never mind the power of the spells she could so effortlessly sling, it was less about the act itself, and more about an exchange. It had been a way to negotiate the waters of their relationship, even as they became less stormy and tenuous. Jaina had spent long hours imparting the knowledge she held of maps and charts, how to read currents, and plot a course based on the path of the stars. Somehow the sharing of knowledge seemed to give them both firm grounds to stand upon, and allowed them to give something to the other. Teaching, in its own way, could be a surprisingly intimate act of sharing.  
They had already learned to share the duties and responsibilities of leadership, the weight that came with it and the sometimes-sleepless nights it brought. They had learned to share a room.  
They had even, cautiously, learned to share a bed.

In its own way even the little exchanges helped smooth the once-rough edges of their interactions, uncertainties, and insecurities. Every little piece counted in this dance, as they both slowly learned the footwork blind, guiding off of each other.  
This was no different.

Dawn had come bright and clear, and both of them had risen early. It was a habit of the Banshee Queen to practice, more for the peace of mind it brought her than the necessity of training. This time, she brought Jaina with her. The mage had feigned reluctance but followed nonetheless, and the two made it to the range just as the sun began to banish the layer of nighttime mist that hung heavy and quiet. Only a few other archers were on the grounds, and Sylvanas led Jaina to the far end, furthest from other eyes and ears. She stopped at a rack of bows, strung taught and hanging on pegs next to a small collection of quivers.

“Choose.” She inclined her head slightly towards the rack, and Jaina faltered slightly.  
“I don’t...I don’t know what I should be looking for. I told you, I’ve never fired a bow.”  
Sylvanas made a small irritated noise. “What do they teach you in Kul Tiras?”  
“Muskets.” Jaina said flatly, arms crossed. Sylvanas tried to look dour but succeeded only in suppressing a small grin that pulled at the corner of her mouth. She gestured to the rack of bows.  
“These are all common marksman’s bows and relatively poor quality. Still, pick them up and see which feels best. How they fit your hand, how the weight feels.”

Jaina tentatively picked up the first bow, wrapping her hand around the smooth wood of the recurve, hefting it gently, before placing it back on the rack. By the time she was on the third bow she handled it more confidently, testing the weight, even raising it. It wasn’t until the sixth bow, a dark hardwood recurve, that she seemed satisfied. Sylvanas gave an approving nod and grabbed a quiver, slinging it over her shoulder beside her own as she turned and walked towards the line in the dirt that marked the archer’s standing point. When she reached it, she shook the arrows from the quiver, letting it fall to the ground, before sticking the arrows gently into the soft earth so they looked like strange plants, their white fletching an odd blossom. Jaina came and stood alongside as Sylvanas pulled her bristling bone recurve from her back and took her stance.

“Sideways, like this, and align your feet with the path you want your arrow to take.” The Banshee Queen raised an arm as she spoke, pointing in line with her body to the circular targets at the far end of the range. Jaina tentatively followed suit.  
“When you draw,” Sylvanas pulled an arrow from her quiver as she spoke, nocked it, and drew back in one fluid motion as years of muscle memory took over making her movement effortless and precise, “Keep your shoulders in-line with your target.” She lowered her arm, relaxing the bowstring, and using her thumb to keep her arrow in place as she freed her right hand, and reached out to where Jaina’s gripped the back end of an arrow.

“Here.” Sylvanas gently moved the mages fingers on the bowstring, first finger above the arrow, second and third below. Jaina gripped the bow, lifted, and pulled back on the string. She was surprised at the weight. It made sense, the power needed to turn a piece of wood into a hurtling shaft of death, but the way she had seen Sylvanas do it over and over had made it look less an effort than it was. She drew the bow and stopped as Sylvanas appraised her.  
The Banshee Queen gently tapped the hand that held the bow, fitted smoothly into the curved wood of the handle.

“Relax this a bit, so you don’t turn the bow on the release.” Sylvanas said as she regarded Jaina’s hand, “you needn’t grip it as though it might bite you.”  
Jaina opened her mouth to retort but Sylvanas stopped her by placing a hand on her right forarm. “Lower. Your elbow should in a line with your arrow.” Sylvanas hadn’t even made eye contact with her, but studied her stance with a concentration that was only slightly unnerving. Jaina felt clumsy under the eyes of the Banshee as she stood, arms beginning to tremble slightly from the effort of holding the bow aloft and tightly drawn. Sylvanas walked a slow half circle around and behind her.  
“Good. How does it feel.”  
“Heavy.” Jaina muttered. And then, quietly, “I am not quite sure how to aim.”

Sylvanas flashed a small smile and gently pressed the back of Jaina’s right hand. She directed the mage’s hand that held the bowstring slowly and carefully to rest against her cheek, close to the chin, until the string itself was almost resting against her skin. Jaina stiffened slightly, but held her stance for a moment more. Sylvanas finally gave a small approving nod and Jaina lowered the bow, pinching the arrow to the wood of the handle so as to free up her arms which she shook out, one at a time.

“Tides. It’s heavier than I thought.” She mumbled, and then looked up with a small and slightly sheepish smile, “you make it look easy.”  
“I’ve had many a year of practice.” Sylvanas shrugged a shoulder, and watched as Jaina rotated her shoulders a few times.  
“I still don’t think I understand how to aim.” Jaina finally said, shifting her weight onto one hip as she squinted down the range towards where the target stood in the light of the morning sun. “Do I look at the arrow?”  
“No.” Sylvanas crossed her arms and regarded Jaina for a moment, before following the mage’s gaze down the range. “When you conjure a spell, hurl it at something, what do you see?” She finally asked, turning back to the mage.  
“I see what it is I intend to strike.”  
“Do you watch the spell? Or your hand as you cast?”  
“No.”  
Sylvanas gave a small and only slightly dark smile of approval. “It’s the same. The bow is part of you, the arrow is the spell you cast. The only thing you focus on, the only thing you see is---”  
“Where I want it to go.” Jaina finished for her. 

Sylvanas looked back and met the mages eyes, frozen for a moment with the intensity of their deep blue-grey. There was a fire in them now as Jaina spoke, some understanding, as the two locked eyes and Sylvanas, eventually freeing herself from Jaina’s gaze, nodded.  
Something changed then, as if the air had grown more still, some current passing through it. Jaina turned towards the target and drew again, pulling the bowstring to rest at her chin, relaxing her grip on the dark recurve. Sylvanas had to give her elbow a small tap to get it back in the right place, but other than that, she had no corrections for form. Jaina squinted for a moment at the target, and Sylvanas stepped in close, very close.  
She placed a hand, slowly, gently on the mage’s stomach, at the top of her cuirass and just below her breasts. Jaina did not tense or shy away, nor did her eyes stray from the target.

“Strength comes from your breath. Loose your arrow on the exhale.” Sylvanas said quietly, almost too quiet to hear. “When you are ready, gently release the string.” She stepped back.  
Jaina took a deep breath in, and as she exhaled her fingers uncurled, as the pent-up tension was flung free and the arrow flew with a soft murmur and the hum of the bowstring. She had hit the target. Certainly not a bull’s-eye, but her shot was straight and clean. She lowered the string, a small frown creasing her brows.  
“That,” Sylvanas said, pulling the mage’s attention to her, “was impressive.”  
Jaina raised an eyebrow in unabashed skepticism, at which Sylvanas allowed the corner of her mouth to twitch into a smile.  
“For a first shot at this distance, that was very good. You have good form.”  
Jaina actually blushed slightly at that, and smiled down at her feet, before shrugging it off and pulling another arrow from the earth.  
“I suppose it’s practice with spells.” She said idly, as she nocked another arrow.  
“Call it what you will. You would make a fine archer if ever you wanted.” Sylvanas drew her own bow, and nocked an arrow.  
“I take that as a high compliment.” Jaina said, trying and failing to keep an edge of humor from her voice. Sylvanas merely quirked an eyebrow, before setting in beside the mage to practice.


End file.
